BRRRR... BRRRR.... BRRRR….
"Jezz! What, what!? What time is it? Who the heck is calling me this hour!?"
W
ith semi-open eyes and feeling like a chain ball was keeping them closed, I mustered all my strength to roll over to the other side of the bed to reach my phone. It was still dark and generally, the sun shows up pretty early in this part of the world, so either someone called me late in the night and I was just nearly dead, or someone decided to call me extremely early at the point in the night where we all feel like dying if woken up unexpectedly.
After successfully failing to open my eyes, despite my efforts, and a few times trying to reach the phone with my hands, the bright light of it couldn't keep my eyelids closed any longer. Because of the late time, with more of an uninterested and alienated face than a curious or annoyed one, I got to see who the most appreciated person was calling me this hour.
MARIA UNIVERSITY IS CALLING YOU.....
"I cannot believe it!" - I guess I wasn't as surprised as I was angry when I saw her name over the phone screen.
Answering the phone, I didn't hold back my animosity for the moment.
"Do you know what time it is!? It's Sunday just past 4:00 a.m. And you know very well that you and I had a very long week, what are you thinking!?"
"Well, well, good morning Miyuki"- Said Maria in a tone that dismissed my initial irritated complaints - "Calm down just a bit, I'm on the speaker here."
"Uh... What? Speaker?"
"It's no problem, Maria, this reaction is expected don't you think?" - Unexpectedly, a second voice could be heard in the background. It was a man's voice, but I couldn't yet recognize it or think who it could be.
"Oh… I guess so, but this is just too important, right, professor?"
What!? Professor!?
"It may be, Maria, but I don't see why you should be calling your colleague at such an early time" - I had started being sidelined here in this conversation, even though I was the reason for it…..
"Professor… Fukuda?" - I intervened with a questioning tone.
"Oh, Kashiwagi-san, I'm just so sorry for what just happened. I've told Maria we should've waited until later, but you know just how intense she can be when she insists on something."
"But professor!" - Maria shouted, creating a loud noise on my side of the line that really hurt my ears. That girl….
"You don't know how much of a sleeper she can be. If you let her, Miyuki will wake up only at noon!"
"-Hey, what is this!? I wasn't woken up at 4:00 a.m. to hear this!"
"I'm so sorry, Kashiwagi-san, I won't let this repeat!"
"Oh, professor, just let it be. In the end, I'll tell ya it will be for the best."
"That may be, Maria, but it isn't just the ti-..." - Once again, I was being sidelined in the conversation between the two of them on the other end of the line
"Could just someone explain to me why the heck am I being called so early in the morning? - Tired of that pointless discussion between Maria and Prof. Fukuda on a 4.00 a.m. morning, I just shouted over the phone interrupting their little chit chat.
"Just get to the point, please…."
"Miyuki! Just come now to the lab, it'll be easier to explain to you!"- Shouted Maria over the line.
"Are you seriously asking me to go to the university on a Sunday this morning?"
"Yes."
"..."
"I don't want to and it's just too tiresome to argue with you Maria, we'll talk later. Professor, please call me later on a more civilized time and I'll be there in the lab."
"STOP! Actually, I think it's better if you just get up already." - Maria wouldn't let go of the bone.
"And why is that?"
"Well, I've already arranged for Oliver to come over there and pick you up. He should be there with his car in about… 2 minutes, I think. And will be waiting outside until you come out."
"Whaaaaaat!? How did that sensible, gentle, and cute Oliver agree to something like that!? What did you do, Maria!?"
"A woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do."
"And how is that so?"
"Just come over already. Look through your window, he must be already outside waiting for you."
He really was. Peeking behind the window's curtain, a rusty old car with its lights on was waiting at the front of my apartment. And although it was a bit hard to have a clear view, given the time of the night, it definitely was Oliver waiting by outside, resting his back on the car's door and shivering from the early morning cold wind; I guess even tropical countries have cold mornings now and then.
Urgh... He looks like an overnight dried pancake.
Still sleepy with almost one functional eye, and probably also looking like a dried pancake, I changed myself as best and as fast as I could, given the circumstances, and rushed downstairs, as I found a very, if not more, tired and dull looking Oliver.
".... Good morning Oliver" - I said as I tried to make the nicest possible facial expression you could make in that situation.
"Morning, Miyuki" - Answered Oliver, with the most depressing voice you could think of.
"Ergh... Are you okay, Oliver?"
"Are you, Miyuki?" - A bit cold, yes, but understandable given the situation.
"Not that much" - I answered as I got in the back of the car.
"So. You have your answer then." - Ouch.
"Right.... Anyway, thanks for picking me up, Oliver. Especially… Well… In this time and hour."
"Sure, thank Maria for that, but you already know how she is, right?"
"Yeah, she sure is someone intense. What has she done to make you agree to such a wild task?"
"That bitch has my cat as a hostage!"
"What?? Your cat? How come?"
"Yes, my cat! She came by yesterday and stole my freakin cat when I wasn't looking. And she threatened not to give him back unless I took you to the lab with my car this morning."
"She sure can be a manipulative one."
"Yeah, talk about a strong personality."
"Anyway, shall we go then? The sooner we get there the better."
"Yeah, let's go."
"..."
"... You are a really good driver, Oliver, especially considering this is a manual car." - And because you have such a baby face and it is hard to imagine you driving- "It has been a while since I've seen one of these back at home. To be fair, I think I don't even know how to drive a manual."
"Well, most cars here are manual, and I myself used to help my dad with his transport company some years ago, so I was able to get some experience. To be fair, for quite some time I considered staying at my father's company. My old man always needed a hand, and I liked helping him."
"But you chose to go to university instead of staying in your dad's business."
"Yes, that's right. But there's a story behind it."
"A story?"
"Yes, but I don't think you'd be interested in it at such an early time."
"Oh please. We actually don't talk with each other very often, so… Is there a better time?"
"Well, I guess you have a point." - He scratched his head but complied.
"So… You know, not everyone around here has the same opportunities, this is not a very equal country in terms of wealth, and a lot of people suffer from poverty, including my own community. But even though I was poor, I had the opportunity to study in a good school with a scholarship resulting in my life and my choices being dramatically different from those around me, where many of my friends dipped down to crime or drugs. I'm very grateful for what was given to me, and because of that my dream is to become a teacher, particularly one that will teach in not so privileged communities, so I can then change the life of other kids like my professors changed mine. And deep down, I think I have this debt that I need to repay, you know?"
"Wow, that is pretty deep, and noble"
"I don't know about that, it's just something that I want to do, be it noble or not."
"I guess that's even more admirable."
"Then again, I'm not too certain about it, but thanks anyway, Miyuki."
"..."
"Would you mind if I asked you a similar question, Miyuki?"
"About what?"
"You know, about you, coming here. It's already been a few months since you've been with us, but I think we've never had the opportunity for that talk. I mean, what has driven you to come to such a faraway place? Although I think we are a nice bunch and do a good job, you probably would have had some good opportunities somewhere a little bit…. closer. At least that's what I think."
Oliver caught me a little off guard as I didn't expect the conversation to become about me.
Although it should be a straightforward answer, that was a question that I didn't feel the most comfortable with answering. And to be fair, concerning my coming to this country, I think I've never honestly answered anyone, not even myself.
"Hmmm… Well, Prof. Fukuda is kind of unique in this world, isn't he?" - I'd feel bad about myself if I outright lied about my feelings to Oliver, so I just avoided the question instead and didn't add much to my answer.
"Huh, that is true." - It was perceivable that Oliver wasn't satisfied with the answer, but he also probably noticed that maybe this was a subject which I wasn't too comfortable talking about, at least at such an early time. He was really perceptive despite his juvenile appearance.
As we came by car, our trip was very short. I think we took more time trying to pass through the university gates, where a sloppy and sleepy night guard checked in with some kind of central security system if we were cleared to enter inside the university at nonbusiness days or hours. But we were able to reach our lab, at 5:17 a.m to be more precise; the only room in the whole building lit up.
Receiving us, Maria stood tall at the front of the lab entrance door, all elegantly dressed up with her white coat over her, make-up flawlessly done, and not even a strand of hair out of place. Damn, how can she look so good at such an early hour? In comparison, how am I looking now? Terrible, probably.
A slight smirk on Maria's face as she saw Oliver with me sealed her victory, as he only nodded his head down and sighed. She achieved what she wanted, and considering her strong headed personality, that must have made her feel extremely accomplished. What a bossy girl.
On the counterpart, Oliver remained with his dried pancake face. Well…. Who wouldn't? And I am almost certain that he was two steps from falling over.
A powerless Prof. Fukuda against Maria's dominating aura stood aside and gave us a wry smile as he couldn't do much to control the girl. But, nevertheless, he proceeded to greet us and get started with the meeting. After all, we all wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
"W-well, Kashiwagi-san, Oliver, good morning, thanks for coming at such an... Inconvenient time, to say the least. But I appreciate your readiness and I'll explain myself to you why we are in such a hurry."
"So, to business. The reason I asked you all to come here on a Sunday early morning is that something very unexpected happened regarding the soon-to-come university academic symposium." - I scratched my head as I was hearing some new terms.
"First, to Kashiwagi-san. You see, I guess you are not familiar with it, but every year the university organizes a multidisciplinary symposium, where it hosts papers from multiple institutions across the country, as well as presenting its best works published during last year."
"Right… Didn't know about that, but I guess we have something similar in Japanese universities."
"Yes, that's true, and it was in the last one that you participated where I scouted you."
Indeed, it was. Well, I think I know how these things work at least; I'm curious to see what route this conversation is gonna take.
"So…. For every symposium, a committee is formed, with the task of organizing the logistics of the event, marketing efforts, and selecting the papers that will be presented during it. To help with this, there is a structural organizing division between liberal arts, sciences, and biologicals. Generally, Med school takes the place of biologicals, but…. Something unexpected happened and they won't be able to take their seat at this year's symposium. Truly a pity, if you ask me, but that's how things are sometimes inside university politics."
"Something unexpected?"
"It seems that there is some kind of conflict between the med school students and the board of directors, and so they decided to remove their participation from the event. Don't ask me the details, I just got to know this too."
"Is that so…."
"Yes, and because of the absence of the medical school, and in light of our recent exposition due to our endeavor with the marine, we were chosen - Well…. More so requested to participate in the organizing committee of this year's University Symposium, representing biological courses."
"The thing is…. "- Pr. Fukuda proceeded - "The organizing committee will have its first meeting tomorrow, and like every other group, we are requested to do a presentation about the work and research done last year from the whole biological area!"
"From all the different fields!?
"Yes… That's right, and this presentation will need to summarize the work from all these fields from last year, which were the more relevant researches, and which of these are a good candidate to exhibit during the event. On top of that, we also receive papers from different universities across the country whose authors request it to be presented during the event, but only a handful can be shown, so the committee needs to decide which ones will be presented and which ones won't, and it is our job to select them wisely."
"Hold on a sec" - Oliver intervened - "Basically, what you are asking us to do, is that, in 24 hours, there needs to be a full slideshow presentation summarizing the work done in all of the biological fields, including med school, which we don't know a thing about; then pass through dozens, if not hundreds of papers, with the responsibility to choose a handful of them, all from good scientists that want their job to be exposed, and we, mere graduates, with only too little time, are the ones that will judge it. Sounds a little bit crazy and unfair, don't you think?"
"With all due respect, Professor." - I tried to reason with them- "I know the importance of the symposium not only for us or the university, but for all of the scientists that poured their hearts into their research that are to be presented. But isn't it just impossible to do that in such little time?"
"Miyuki! That's why we need to do this! This is a great responsibility that befell on our shoulders. Our will must abide by the greater good!"
"Why are you talking like we are in medieval times, Maria?"
"It doesn't matter. We need to do this, guys! Please!" - Maria said it while reaching for my and Oliver's arm, holding us by the wrist.
*Sigh* - "Miyuki, you know this is pointless, right? Maria won't give up until we accept. And, besides, although it's a crazy job, what she is saying is surprisingly reasonable. Just give me back my freaking cat!!"
"Hahaha, sure, Oliver!"
I looked again at Maria's sparkling glowing eyes, filled with emotion and excitement. Yes, after all, she was right. We couldn't let down the people that devoted so much to science, after all, how much has science contributed to our lives already?
Oh boy…. This is going to be a really long Sunday.